Welcome to the new incarnation of the Saving Throw column. For fans of the column under Fans of the column under Martin Drury can look forward to continued ... well, not a heck of a lot of the stuff he did. That said, there will be new stuff; more gaming advice, reviews of a wider variety of different products (and not just books, either), a news section, as well as a couple of projects, though I won't make any promises about that just yet.

As for who I am, I'm an avid gamer of nearly ten years with a strong interest in games
outside the Tolkien-esque fantasy mold. As a long-time consumer of RPG blogs and podcasts, and having seen this column lapse into languidness, I thought I'd try and resurrect it with my own spin.

You can also see my editorials on the relationship between tabletop games and their console counterparts, if you're all that curious about my opinions or writing style.

For place to game, check our Roleplaying Forum,
with lively forum-based gaming, discussion, or to meet up with gamers in your area.

The long anticipated Dresden Files RPG is now up for pre-order. Based on the popular novels by Jim Butcher set in a supernatural version of modern Chicago, this RPG comes from Evil Hat productions, makers of Spirit of the Century and Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies. This represents a team-up of some very cool, unique game designers and the best ongoing fantasy series in print right now. I am very excited.
Pack your fangs and puffy shirts; White Wolf announces the Grand Masquerade, a large-scale LARP event, for the 23rd to 26th of September in downtown New Orleans. While I'm not a huge White Wolf or much of a LARPer, the thought of a few thousand nerds taking over New Orleans sounds cool to me.

In other White Wolf news, Eddy Web popped up on an episode of Fear the Boot to talk about the future of PDFs and to be cryptic about World of Darkness Online. Eddy sounds very comfortable behind a mic as an interviewee, and this ep only reinforces my man-crush on co-host Chad. Listen here.

The Force is weak with this one, as Wizards of the Coast abandons the Star Wars license for RPGs and minis. Saga Edition is not only one of my favourite edition of the Star Wars RPG, but my favourite take on the d20 system and my favourite edition to run and play. I'm sad to see it end. You can read the official press release here.

In anticipation of the revised re-release of Deadlands: Reloaded, an alternate history western game where steampunk wonders of mad science battle zombies, mages and other supernatural forces across a weird version of the old west for the Savage Worlds, Pinnacle has put up a preview of the updated Shaman background edge here. If this is how much they've changed the Shaman, then I'm very curious about other player options.

Catalyst Games, makers of Classic Battletech and Shadowrun, has been the victim of embezzlement. A year end financial review has discovered that approximately $800,000 of company funds had been mingled with one of the owner's private accounts: read more. This has stalled most of their releases, which means no more Eclipse Phase for me.

Margaret Weis Productions announced the licensing of popular Superman origin TV series, Smallville, and less popular, but pretty damn cool, heist-of-the-week series Leverage for the Cortex System. I'm intrigued to see how the Cortex rules deal with super-powers, and if Leverage does anything unique or fun that other espionage-y rpgs haven't done. Sources here and here.

Outro

So ends the first of (hopefully) many iterations of the new Saving Throw. There will be a topic on forums open to suggestions for changes or additions for the column. I want to hear what you want to read; Q&As, an advice column, tips for better gaming, nigh-religious devotion to everything Pathfinder releases, let me know and I'll try to cater to you. Until then: keep those dice rolling.